Darigaaz flew through the air for a short time before landing a short distance away from the city of Kiren. As it landed, two of his passengers prepared to jump off, with one of them prepared to help the wounded third in their group. Diron took care as he slid off the dragon, a sleeping Kari in his arms. She was bandaged from her wounds earlier and had passed out during the flight of the legendary creature, Diron having to keep her from falling from such a lethal height. Nick hopped down from the back of his dragon, checking to make sure everyone was alright and that the area was clear for the time being. "That," he muttered, noticing the few bullet wounds Darigaaz had taken and ignored, "was a close call."
Diron gave another of his silent nods as he laid Kari down on the nearby ground, careful not to stir her from her slumber. "An attack from Dark Omen, involvement of police, death of her mother," he shook his head. "Its been a long day." He got up and moved not too far from the girl, thinking about all that is going on. "All of this because they wanted me dead."
Nick shrugged and sat down, allowing his dragon to turn gold and disappear in a circle that glowed below it. "So, how about spilling the beans on this 'Dark Omen' you've been talking about?"
He shook his head. "I will, but only when we all are conscious," he said. "She's now involved in this as much as I am, she deserves to know." He looked at Nick questionably. "Why do you wish to know anyway?"
Nick couldn't help but smirk. "I just wish to help you out, that's all. Both of you are my friends, and I can't allow anyone to get away with trying to claim their lives!"
Diron nodded in understanding. "An admirable thought," he replied, "and your help would be appreciated, but it isn't necessary. You would only get yourself involved and at risk as well as both of us."
"Bring them on! I don't care how strong they think they are," he said humorously. "They do say the more the merrier, and I believe we can handle them easily."
"Yet they also say," a female voice said, signaling that Reika was in control, "that two is company, but three's a crowd." Both wizards turned to face where Kari was, greeted by the sight of a bandaged girl with pale green and white hair with brown eyes. She moved to get up, only to mumble in pain as she felt how badly wounded Kari was from the fight.
"How long have you been awake?" Nick asked in surprise.
"Since I noticed that Kari was out cold," she replied, concentrating on a healing spell to heal her wounds. "She's been through quite a bit tonight, so I'm hardly surprised." As she spoke, her wounds began to heal slowly. "Oh, and its safe now to mention me to Kari when she awakes. I spoke to her in her sleep before her mother died."
Nick looked at her. "Wait a minute, you revived Diron. How about your mother?"
"Her mother," Reika corrected. "She didn't accept me as a part of herself, and I cannot revive her mother. Her body was destroyed. I can't revive someone if their body no longer exists." She looked away as her wounds continued to heal. "I am truly sorry about her loss, but there is nothing any of us can do to correct it."
Diron nodded. "I understand," he said. "I just wish that she didn't have to suffer the loss of a relative, especially to that group."
Reika looked at him. "How about telling us about this 'Dark Omen' then? I can tell Kari what she needs to know in her dreams and leave any questions she may have to you."
Diron shrugged. "I guess I can trust you with that, as long as I don't need to repeat myself." He sighed and sat down where he was, looking at his two friends. "Alright, here's the deal. The Dark Omen are a group of wizards. There are many groups of them, kinda like cliks or gangs for the regular humans, except are obviously more dangerous than any of them. Dark Omen is just one of the larger groups, but is by far one of the most dangerous ones that exist." He looked up at the sky at this moment. "Most of their wizards are capable warriors, yet I don't know if they are taught further within the group or are just using what skills they naturally have. There recruitment system is completely different from most other forms of initiation. They go after any that they see as a powerful wizard and make an attempt to recruit them. Very few are invited in just by being the strongest, and many have to battle members of the Dark Omen themselves just to enter. If a member engages a wizard, the result often leaves one standing if the member wins. Almost half of such duels actually have the member survive if he was beaten, and that normally has the group give the invite. It is relatively simple, join or die."
He looked back at them. "I've only heard of them for almost two years. I encountered one of their members and ended up fighting him, leaving him for dead when the battle was over. Another one found me in the forest a few days later and gave me the invite. I declined and had to retaliate against the opponent, forcing the necromancer to withdraw." He looked down at his knees as he continued. "The rest I can clearly remember. I lived in a quiet town, not much different from Kiren. After they learned that I had no interest in joining them, they came at me in force later that day. They attacked me when I least expected it, and my mother fought to protect me in any way she could. She didn't have the ability to summon a creature or use spells for she wasn't a wizard, and thus died trying to save me." He was about to continue when Reika stopped him.
"I know the rest. You told Kari that you lost control of your mana and set the house on fire, supposedly killing the necromancers. You then buried your mother's body and never looked back as you traveled alone for those past two years," she replied. She shook her head as she absent mindedly removed the bandages on her body, revealing pink marks where open wounds have been. "It would seem that Kari can't look back now either, for she doesn't have anywhere else to go to."
Nick looked at Reika. "What do you mean she has nowhere else to go to. What about her relatives?"
"She has none," Reika replied. "Her father died shortly before her birth and contact with his side of her family has been lost for over fifteen years. Her mother's relatives had been dying from random acts of violence or diseases." She shook her head in a sad manner. "Because she had no one left by time she was fifteen, it was always just herself and her mother, but that was all that was keeping her on her feet. Excluding you guys, and possibly myself, she has no one left to rely on now."
Diron shook his own head. "Unfortunately, we can't stay in any one place for long. Word seems to get around pretty fast for them to easily find me in any city or town I enter. And if that Dark Omen bitch is with the cops, then we can be assured that they will constantly be looking out for us at every single place within the country."
Nick looked at Diron. "For now, though, we should focus on getting rest for the night," he said.
"You're right," Diron replied, getting up. "I'll take the first watch, so you and Kari can..."
"No," Nick replied. "I'll take the first watch. I had a few creatures already summoned while you were speaking about the Dark Omen."
Reika looked at him. "I don't sense a creature nearby," she replied, looking around cautiously.
"My specialty," he replied. "I set up a dark aura around this place using one of my own spells and have various creatures lurking around. Most are wild creatures, easily mistaken for regular wildlife. I also have a few...darker creatures watching us." A pair of red eyes shone from the darkness of the woods they resided in, accompanied by a faint outline of a particularly nasty creature of death. "Dark Strosis and the others can hold the area, but I should stay awake so that some of them don't think of turning on you both while you sleep."
Both nodded impressed. "Not bad, Nick," Diron replied. "Its settled then, thanks to your current actions. You will have the first watch, but I'm also summoning one of my own trusted creatures to help. He will stay around until he is killed or sent back, but he won't do anything funny." With that said, the red mage concentrated on his mana control and focused on the summoning. Another red circle appeared next to him and flames shot forth as the pardic firecat arrived. "If it dies, I'll sense it and awaken instantly."
Reika also concentrated, however with greater difficulty. She then gasped as she stopped. "Dammit, I can't summon what I wanted to summon," she murmured as she looked through Kari's deck. She stopped flipping through the cards as she looked at one. "Crud, I didn't realize she changed her deck around. And this creature is only strong with others." She lightened up upon seeing a familiar face in the deck. "There we go," she said as a white circle appeared next to her. An aven form glowed in white before the glow faded, revealing the form of the aven lieutenant of the northern order, Kirtar. "I'll be able to sense his death as well, but it may as well be Kari that awakens."
"Fine then," Nick said. "Just rest up for now, both of you." He looked at Diron. "I'll be getting you up within three hours from now, so try and get some sleep before that happens." Both Reika and Diron nodded before leaning back for some sleep. Diron leaned against a tree as he drifted off to slumber land, while Reika laid on her back and closed her eyes. Nick watched with concern as his new friends fell asleep before beginning his self appointed task.
...
Ari entered the room where the other members of Dark Omen resided, not overly surprised to see the unconscious form of a middle aged woman in the corner of the room. She looked at the circle of members and their lord, a mild smirk on her face. She knelt down before her lord with her head down. "I have done all that I could in the matter concerning the girl, my lord," she said.
Zinek watched her as she moved, his red eyes never even blinking. "Explain, then, why we aren't graced with her presence, whether it be alive or dead?"
"The wizard of red mana and his friend interfered when I was in the process of killing her," she replied, revealing the bloodied wound where Kamahl had struck. "As of this moment, though, she has no one else to turn to, for I killed her mother. I also have the police wrapped around my finger, believing that the girl and the wizards are responsible for the woman's death."
Zinek nodded. "I understand," he replied in a dangerous tone, "yet you rely too much on common people when it comes to tracking them down, and I doubt that they'll easily let the police find them."
"That is no problem," she replied, pulling out a black marble. The small sphere pulsed with mana flow. "I had set up a spy and an assassin within their group with this. For now, he is merely the unwilling, yet unknown, spy of Dark Omen." She held the marble to Zinek. "I figured that you should have the honor of having him perform his assassination act when you feel the time is right. My sphere will allow you to control him like a puppet whenever you feel the time is right."
He nodded once more. "I see too few flaws in your plan, yet they must become exhausted before I have the 'mole' act. I will watch them from here and send teams out to do hit and runs on their small group, while your 'police' handle tracking them down. Then, when the time is right, they will be crushed and used for our purposes." He smirked as he finished. "Now go."
Ari nodded as she stood up, making sure she had her cloak conceal her completely before her departure. 'For now,' she thought, 'I may as well join the cops as one to ensure the plan's success.'
...
Reika walked around in what she had started to call 'The dream realm.' Unlike before, though, the area was surrounded in darkness where the 'forest' that Kari had found her had been. As she moved further, the darkness seemed to get stronger and reveal despair and fear. Even death seemed present in the area. She shook her head. 'Kari... She's been hurt on several levels this night, and this is proof of it.' She didn't stop until she was in the epicenter of this dark aura that plagued Kari's dream realm, where the sobbing form of Kari was visible. She was wearing the same clothes as when Kari had battled the necromancer that invaded her house, the front stained with dust. "Kari..."
"Leave me alone..." she said between sobs, acknowledging the fact that Reika was there.
"No, I won't," Reika said, moving closer to Kari. "I'm not here to see if you changed your mind, if that's what you're thinking." Kari looked at her with one teary eye. "Even I am understanding enough to know when someone isn't even in their right state of mind, and your dream world is representing it."
Kari glared at her green haired look-alike as her tears still streamed down her face. "Understanding? Do you have any idea how bad I feel that my mother died by the hands of a black robed bitch?" Her fists clenched as she spoke. "My mother is dead, she was all I had left of my family!" She stared into her mirror's eyes in anger. "You can't possibly know how I feel because of it! I couldn't save her, and I have to live on knowing I couldn't."
"That is where you're wrong," Reika said. "You aren't the only one that feels like that. There are others that lose their friends, relatives, parents, even loved ones, not just you. Just like you, those people couldn't do anything but watch those they care for die before their very eyes. The only difference here is that barely any of them would see their parents waste to dust." Reika kept eye contact with Kari as she spoke, her tone of voice making it hard for Kari not to listen. She chose to get closer to Kari. "Back in otaria, my family died long before I did. They all were members of the Northern Order, and all were determined to fight and die for their cause. Instead, they died in the worse possible way." She waved her hand to the side, changing a portion of the dream realm to one of her personal memories.
The memory was within the fort of the northern order, and people were dying. Avens, nomadic soldiers dressed in the clothes of the order, and even civilians granted shelter screamed as they struggled to stay alive, but they weren't able to resist the magic that was washing over their bodies. Calcium formed over their bodies from the feet up, the screams ending only when the victim's lungs had also calcified or when the mouth could no longer move. In the mess, a young girl of about eight years old with green hair cried her eyes out and screamed as she saw the devastation caused by the Lieutenant's wrath as it killed everyone, and slowly started to claim her as well. She was dying as well, before a barrier was formed around her. When the barrier formed, the calcification that had already claimed her body dissipated, freeing her from the spell. She noticed this and looked around, noticing to her horror that it was her parents saving her life with a protection spell. It wasn't horrifying, but the fact that they only could use their spell to save their daughter from the deadly spell is what made it horrifying as the parents used what mana they had until their lives ended to ensure that their little girl would survive.
As Kari watched, she noticed something strange about the memory. First, she noticed that the girl almost looked like she did when she was that age. The other thing odd was the fact that the girl's mother looked like her own. She glared at Reika in anger. "What's the idea of doing this!" she yelled at the green haired woman. "Why did you place me and my mother into your memory!"
Reika looked at Kari. "That woman wasn't your mother," she said sadly as the memory started to wrap up. The spell and the barrier faded, and the girl ran to where her parents were. She tried calling them to see if they were faking it, only to cry in a ball at the statues feet as she realized it was for real. "Those two people you saw were my mother and myself." She looked away, hiding the fact that she was crying because of how painful that memory was. "In your case, this would be you and your mother in an alternate dimension, where Otaria and Dominaria are. Except that this had occurred years ago. I eventually died only about ten years later by the hands of a powerful Necromancer named Zenrik."
Kari looked at Reika dumbstruck by what she was being told. "T-this can't be right," she said as she turned away, some tears flying off her face as more still streamed. "You're lying!"
Reika looked at Kari, her own silent tears left unnoticed because Kari wasn't looking, then sighed. "I can't convince you otherwise, so how you see what I showed you is up to you. Just know that I lost my parents at a younger age as well as everyone I knew then. You and I aren't that much different in that respect, and don't leave out what Diron said to you before."
Kari snapped her head towards Reika, noticing the tears subconsciously. "How do you know what he said?"
Reika turned away. "I already accepted you as a part of myself, remember? I can hear everything and know pretty much everything you know." She turned back to Kari. "Oh, before I go, there is some information that Diron told me about the people that killed your mother. They're known as the Dark Omen, and they were after you because of me killing one of their necromancers after you where knocked unconscious by Hypnox. They were trying to either kill you or take you into their group, but Diron says they are a bad bunch to be with. Them killing your mother is proof of that, if you ask me. They only kill those that seem to be obstacles," she stopped, noticing the effect she was having on Kari with her words. "Sorry, I spoke out of line there," Reika said quickly before she started moving away.
"Where are you going?" Kari said in irritation as her tears still continued to stream, following slightly and grabbing Reika's wrist. "You said they kill obstacles. Are you saying that my mother was an obstacle?"
Reika didn't turn to Kari. "That is exactly what I'm saying," she said. "She probably tried to protect you from the necromancer and died trying, just as Diron's mother seemed to die." Kari's eyes widened as her grip on Reika's wrist weakened enough for the girl to shake her off. Kari stood there with her silent tears streaming down her face. "Just off the record, a Dark Omen existed on Otaria as well, but they were killed off by me along with Zenrik with my dying breath. I'm hoping this Dark Omen isn't the same, otherwise you and your friends are way out of your league."
"What are you saying now?" Kari asked.
Reika turned to her. "I know you want to handle this alone, especially without my help," she replied. "Even if you wish to do anything without accepting me, always remember that your friends will help you and that you all should be careful." She then turned away. "For now, just focus on getting over your mother's death, otherwise you'll do something reckless," was the last thing that she said before she left.
Kari just glared back at Reika. "Just do me one favor," she said to the retreating form, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" She then sat back down, confused about what to think thanks to Reika.
...
"Diron...DIRON!" Nick glared at the sleeping form of Diron, hating the fact that the wizard is a sound sleeper. Rolling his eyes, he gave the eighteen year old a swift kick in the side, waking the wizard up with ease.
"YOW!" Diron scrambled to his feet, rubbing his side in pain. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"
"Your shift, dumbass," Nick said. "Three hours passed by already. Goodnight and hope you have an easy shift." Diron grumbled as the young sixteen year old sat down at a tree and fell asleep.
'Have it your way,' Diron mumbled as he sensed Nick's creatures dying out. He realized why. 'Guess its feeding time for the Strosis,'he thought as he sat down and summoned more creatures to act as a guard. He then grabbed the bag he had and pulled out a red marble, one that showed the miniature of a table. He focused his mana into the marble and tossed it to the side. Once the marble landed, it glowed red as the table formed and solidified on the ground. Once the magic was done, a wooden table was where the marble was, and Diron moved to it to get to work. He summoned a firecat near him to offer him the light he needed to see, then opened a drawer to reveal a collection of magic cards, including quite a few from the new Kamigawa set. He took out his deck and disassembled it into its base components as well as putting out several other cards.
He smirked as he took the swamp cards he needed. 'As much as I hate black with a vengeance,' Diron thought, 'I think it is time I envoke a little darkness.' With that thought fresh in his mind, he went to work on strengthening his deck along with giving him the ability to summon and use spells within it.
...
That is the end of this chapter. A big thanks to the proofreading staff is in order for this chapter, for my dad's laptop isn't capable of converting the chapter as I need it for posting. So far, no posts about character requests, so the characters that will be seen are still mine.
New Reviews:1
Talen Soti- thanks for the review, but some of that review applies to the proofreading staff as well, for their idea suggestions help move the story along as well as my own thoughts.
Not much more to say, aside from me starting a nearly futile search for Akroma from onslaught as well as the standard goal of further strengthening my own deck. Until next chapter then...